Lost Worlds May 1996, Vol. 8, No. 7
The Writers' and Artists' Science Fiction and Fantasy Forum
$1.75 from HBD Publishing
P.O. Box 605
Concord, NC 28026-0605
Editor Holley B. Drye

This full-size magazine suffers somewhat from an ultra-basic desktop publishing set-up (very poor quality "dotty" grey screens), and a cover stock that is the same paper as that used inside the zine. However, for under $2, you get seven fantasy stories, a cartoon centerspread story, and four science fiction pieces.

The issue opens with "The Veiled Prince," by Gene Davis, a greed fable about a veil that allows the user to see whatever he wants, that wouldn't be out of place in Marion Zimmer Bradley's Fantasy Magazine.

Kevin R. Tipple's "Hell, Here and Now" follows, a poor revisitation of Dante's Divine Comedy. Tipple's sole purpose in having "Dantelus, the many generational grandson of Dante" revisit hell seems to be to get in some digs at MBAs and know-it-alls. Bonnie Newton's "Outcast of the North, Fate of the Stranger" is a slightly better read, but seems like an unanchored portion taken from a larger work. It opens with a woman watching a bull fighting a boar. Both are actually magical warriors, and the woman lends her magical strength to the boar. But since we have no real understanding of who any of these three characters are or how they relate to each other, the tragic ending makes little sense.

Ryan G. Van Cleave's "A Lesson In Thievery" is another MZB's Fantasy kind of story, again about greed. This time a group of thieves and the magical woman they steal from all get their just rewards.

Jim Geisert's "Never Trust an Alien in a Yellow Derby" transplants the classic "read the contract before you sign" theme into outer space when a young loser gets an offer to live his wildest fantasies on another planet. Geisert's and Cleave's stories are the best offerings of this issue.

Anthony J. Roberti's "Echoes of Terror" is a little piece of future history that slums through the familiar theme of aliens not finding earthlings worthy of existing. It offers lots of "alien" words but never really goes anywhere. Michael Lee Wood's "XYY Syndrome" does a little better, postulating a future society where people with the "criminal"-creating chromosome are branded green and herded into domes.

The issue also features a couple of short-shorts (including a transparent comment on the misguided importance society places on the female breast when a female dragon wins a "tongue length" contest in which her "measurements" are all-important.)

Lost Worlds includes an uneven batch of fiction, but perhaps serves as a good starting market for new writers.

Copyright © 1996 by John Everson. All Rights Reserved.